US Sends More Spies to Help Organize, Train Syria’s Rebels

President Obama is sending more spies and diplomats to Turkey’s border with Syria to train more of Syria’s rebel forces and increase the supposed vetting process put in place to weed out al-Qaeda militants, who now make up a large part of the opposition fighters.

For months the CIA has had people there on the ground funneling weapons from third party allies like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. They were there to keep the aid coming from the US and its allies from going to Islamic extremists looking to overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

But the process is made up of untrustworthy, third-party sources and intelligence officials have recently told the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times that the truth is that the US doesn’t know who is getting the money and weapons.

The Washington Post describes this ramped up US presence on the Turkish border as part of Obama’s plan “to bolster the rebels militarily without actually contributing weapons to the fight, and politically, to help them stave off internal power challenges by the well-organized and often better-funded hardline Islamic militants who have flowed into the country from Iraq and elsewhere in the Persian Gulf region.”

But it isn’t accurate to say the US isn’t contributing weapons to the fight in Syria. Washington provides arms to the Gulf allies that are currently lending weapons through our CIA to the rebels, so it is an effective policy of arming the opposition fighters.

And on the second point, one would think that an expansive al-Qaeda presence fighting for regime change in Syria might dissuade the Obama administration from aiding any part of the opposition. But apparently that isn’t even enough to disrupt Washington’s plan to change the regime in Syria, in order to eliminate Iran’s main ally in the Middle East and to gain an even stronger foothold in the region.

The al-Qaead presence alone should be enough, but the Obama administration is also aiding a group of rebels that the United Nations has found have committed war crimes in the conflict.

If administration policy starts to be more successful and the Assad regime becomes destabilized enough to actually collapse, it doesn’t at all appear that there will be an appropriate alternative to rise to power – and one would that the current band of disparate rebel fighters, thugs, and al-Qaeda members wouldn’t be it.

The conflict in Syria has essentially become a convoluted proxy war, thanks most especially to US policy, that has the potential to carry on for the foreseeable future and has very dangerous potential to generate blowback and further terrorism against the US.

7 thoughts on “US Sends More Spies to Help Organize, Train Syria’s Rebels”

I think the following is pretty strong evidence demonstrating the obvious "rebel" strategy of attempting to frame Assad (by way of his alleged 'non-government' 'evil militia'…of course) for the "massacres" that pop up every now and then (which the Red Cross and others, in turn, reflexively blame on Assad–no matter how absurd doing so may be–seemingly simply because it happened in the Nation of Syria and he was 'blamed' by the "rebels) (warning: EXTREMELY graphic):

"'Free Syrian Army' fighters in Douma cut the throats of 16 men accused of being government supporters. The evidence for this comes from two seperate videos. One shows the victims prior to their deaths. They have been captured by insurgents who claim they are 'Shabiha' and policemen.

Another video, also posted by opposition activists but purporting to show the victims of a massacre by pro-government militia shows the bodies of the same men earlier seen in the custody of Syrian rebels. They are seen handcuffed and their throats have been cut. The fact that the dead men were in fact 'Free Syrian Army' prisoners proves that not only did the Syrian rebels kill 16 unarmed men, they also attempted to blame the atrocity on government forces.

The massacre seems to have taken place on the 17th of August, 2012 on the outskirts of Douma 10 km North West of Damascus."

The easiest way, I think, to link the men in the two videos is by clothing… For example:

The guy standing in the middle with the white button down shirt with the black undershirt in the 1st video shows up again ~ 1:20

The guy kneeling–second in from the right–wearing a blue shirt with a "puma" logo in 1st video shows up again ~ 1:48

The guy standing, middle-left, wearing the "Coca Cola" shirt in the 1st vid shows up again ~ 2:08

The guy standing, 2nd in from the right, wearing a light blue shirt in the 1st vid shows up again ~ 2:25

This is apparently now official US foreign policy and what it looks like–as these 'types' of things are done for Western consumption, targeting various audiences, in an effort to build political capital for an "intervention"… Whether the US government is directly involved in the planning or guidance here, in my perspective, is somewhat irrelevant–as I'm certain they know after the fact who is doing these things and for what reasons…in addition, they knowingly lie and blame Assad in order to exploit these sort of 'incidents' for all they can–which, in turn, rewards and Incentivizes the 'behavior' in and of itself.

The one who 'drops', with flailing arms btw, at ~1:00 mark, based on the hair-length and build, 'could' be a 'woman' (which is my guess)…it's impossible to say for sure though….

So what exactly is this "Right To Protect" 'doctrine' that Mr. Obama, Mr. David Cameron, and Mr. Francois Hollande are allegedly so eager to exercise in Syria now? Is it "protection" from 'mail service'? If so, it looks as though the "freedom fighters" have that 'situation' well under 'control'…so Mr. Obama, there's no need to concern yourself with Syria and you can go back to your urgent meeting with Mickey Mouse at Epcot Center…. Thanks simply to US "Leadership" and US "Values" alone, the "Syrian People" are 'just fine'…consider the 'situation' on autopilot…

I can really smell the "freedom" in this 'Arab Spring' …

Hopefully the "peaceful protesters" will soon prevail over that 'brutal murderous thug' Assad… I guess CNN somehow missed this 'protest'…but hopefully there will be more very soon, and I'm sure they will cover them… This reminds me of the fun loving 'protests' we have here in the US… How dare that 'Brutal Assad' even fire a BB at these 'freedom loving' "people"?

If the Government are losing as claimed in the western media in the area of 40 troops a day then the Al-Qaeda backed insurgency would be losing in the area of around 400 a day. It is only logical that if Al-Qaeda is being bombed by Government Planes, Helicopters and Tanks then they would be suffering a lot more then Government troops that fire heavy artillery from a safe distance while the Al-Qaeda insurgency only has small arms fire. It should also be noted that the Government has used typical Russian tactics much like we saw in Stalingrad in WW2 when the Soviets allowed the Nazis deep into the country only to encircle them and cut off their supplies. The Syrian army has followed a similar tactic here with great success. They have drawn Al-Qaeda into the cities then encircled them, cut off their supplies, water, food, etc and bombed them from a safe distance. A bit like a turkey shoot. The troops allow a small corridor for more insurgents to enter the Turkey shoot to keep the trap going. A bit like a jerk circle.

None of the countries we claim are "supplying" weapons actually manufactures any weapons. They buy them from the US. The US is coordinating the supply of US weapons. True, we let the oil countries pay for the weapons, but that is hardly a difference that makes a difference. Consider, if we did not want weapons we made to be supplied, we could stop it either by our end user agreements being honored, or by enforcing those agreements via cutting off new supplies of parts, repairs, and delivery. If we did not want Saudis to arm them, the Saudis would not be doing so.

The one and only change if "we" started arming them is we would pay for it ourselves. Republicans seem to be very worried about our deficit, so letting the oil powers pay for our weapons seems better, and they are the purest hypocrites or simply ignorant when they complain.